Additional Information About LA's Marijuana Businesses

Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Resources

How many medical marijuana businesses fulfilled the requirements for the 2017 Annual Business Tax Renewal and Prop D affidavit? What does it mean to be Prop D compliant? How much did the City collect in taxes from medical marijuana businesses last year? In search of city council files on marijuana regulation? Need to report a problem dispensary?

Scroll down to explore resources on the City of Los Angeles' marijuana business landscape.

Tax Remittances by Council District - 2016

The following is an aggregate summary of registered medical marijuana businesses that paid taxes in Tax Year 2016. Tax information has been withheld for Council Districts with less than 5 locations in the interest of taxpayer confidentiality per Los Angeles Municipal Code, Section 21.17.

Out of 262 locations, the total business tax payments came out to $7,471,869 from $150,126,628 total gross receipts.

NOTE: Many businesses have installment payment agreements for delinquent taxes. Additional tax remittances are paid over several months and may overlap tax years. These agreements are typically the outcomes of audits or tax discoveries.

Proposition D "grants a limited immunity from enforcement to medical marijuana businesses that do not violate specified restrictions." Prop D was intended to reduce the number of marijuana dispensaries within Los Angeles city limits to 135 marijuana businesses. The City has determined that 191 medical marijuana businesses are eligible to apply for a Business Tax Registration Certificate (BTRC), but they may or may not be Prop D compliant. Of the 191, 139 medical marijuana businesses have fulfilled the requirements for the 2017 Annual Business Tax Renewal, with affidavit attesting to compliance with Proposition D (per City Ordinance No. 184135).

The Interim Control Ordinance (ICO) is the City of Los Angeles’ temporary moratorium on new medical marijuana dispensaries. It became law on September 14, 2007. Under the ICO, no new dispensaries are allowed to open in the City, and only previously existing dispensaries are allowed to operate. The ICO is intended to control the proliferation of dispensaries while the City develops permanent regulations for medical marijuana uses.

The previously existing dispensaries were required to register with the City Clerk before November 13, 2007. If a dispensary considers itself 'pre-ICO' then it had legitimately registered with the City Clerk as a collective before the ICO.

The site lists the Office of Finance's process of issuing Business Tax Registration Certificates (BTRC) to businesses complying to Ordinance No. 184135. This ordinance amends Subsection (b) of Section 21.50 of the Los Angeles Municipal Code (LAMC) to require all medical marijuana collectives to attest to compliance with Proposition D.